Prosecutors yesterday issued a formal summons to South African Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan to appear in court on Nov. 2 in relation to the granting of early retirement to a colleague, sending the rand reeling.
The currency fell as much as 3.4 percent when National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams also told a news conference that Gordhan was being investigated for his role in setting up a surveillance unit at the tax department a decade ago.
Abrahams said Gordhan, in his previous role as head of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), would be charged with approving early retirement for former tax agency deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay and then reappointing him as a consultant.
This cost the tax agency about 1.1 million rand (US$79,000), in violation of public finance laws, Abrahams said.
An elite police unit known as the Hawks also has also been investigating Gordhan over the so-called “rogue spy unit” at the tax agency, set up when he was at its helm. Abrahams said the probe of the unit was continuing.
Gordhan was first asked questions by the Hawks about the SARS unit in February, an investigation analysts say was the result of political pressure from a faction allied to South African President Jacob Zuma. The president has denied the claims.
The affair, which has rumbled on for months, has rattled markets in Africa’s most industrialized country, which faces the risk of ratings downgrades later this year.
Gordhan, who is highly respected by financial markets, has painted the allegations about his role in establishing the special tax unit as “political mischief,” but said prosecution officials delivered a summons to his house yesterday morning.
“It looks like we are in for a bit of excitement going forward,” he said at a business seminar in Johannesburg. “My lawyers will issue a proper statement in a short while.”
Abrahams denied any mischief in the handling of the case, and said the surveillance unit acted in a “very strange manner” and without clearance from the national intelligence services.
“I can assure you there has been no political interference in this matter. There has been no political interference in the decision made,” Abrahams said.
Abrahams also said that he was still studying a Constitutional Court order last week that said his office could not appeal a ruling that may see corruption charges reinstated against Zuma.
The High Court in April ordered a review of an NPA decision to set aside hundreds of corruption charges against Zuma, calling it “irrational.”
That decision allowed Zuma to run for president in 2009.
The scandals swirling around Zuma contributed to the worst election showing by the ruling African National Congress in local elections in August, intensifying calls for his resignation.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS